The Phantom Maid of Melville

As a touring bar musician in the 80's and 90's, I had many an
occasion to stay in different hotel rooms. Thankfully, strange events
were extremely rare -- but the only one I ever had guaranteed I would
never forget it.

On a Sunday afternoon, our band's school bus pulled into Melville, a
small town in Saskatchewan, located the Melville Hotel (I believe that
was the name), and preceded to load in our equipment. After we had set
everything up, I located my room on the third floor at the end of the
long hallway and found it odd that it had two entrances -- one to the
bedroom which was located at the end of a small hallway, and the other
located at the main hallway, which opened into a small sitting room,
which then lead into the bathroom and then the bedroom. While washing
up, I heard some strange noises emanating from the bedroom, but I
attributed them to the old steam heaters. I locked up both doors and
went for dinner with the rest of the band at a local restaurant.

During dinner I tried unsuccessfully to convince the other band
members to come to the movie theater down the street. Most towns we
played were too small for a theater and it was a treat to see a movie.
In this case,
St. Elmo's Fire was playing, and while definitely not my
first choice, it was better than watching the CBC in black and white on
the TV in my room.

Returning to the hotel, I walked up the three flights and turned the
corner toward the long hallway where my room was located (at the end).
As the hotel was quite old, the hallways were extremely wide -- not like
hotel hallways these days. I distinctly saw a woman -- most likely a
housekeeper -- walk into the hallway toward the entrance to my bedroom.
When I turned down that hallway, I noticed my bedroom door was open --
although I had locked it before I left -- so she must have went into my
room. There was no one in my bedroom but there was also another room
located just before mine down that small hallway (to the bedroom
entrance) so I assumed she was in there -- as that door was ajar too. I
knocked on there, and hearing no one, I peered inside to look for her as
I needed more towels. The room was very small and no one was in there.
There was no bathroom in this particular room. Thinking the woman must
be in my sitting room, I unlocked the door to discover she wasn't there
either. As mentioned, this was an old hotel and when someone walked
along the floor near you, you could hear it. Still thinking I had
somehow missed her, I washed my hands and prepared to go to the movie.
Then I heard the strange noises again coming from the bedroom. I walked
into the bedroom and as I listened to the steam heaters, the noises
which were a low mumbling sound changed direction and emanated from the
sitting room. That's when it hit me that it was really strange that I
didn't see the woman anywhere... So being a natural hero, I got the hell
out of there as fast as I could and went to the movie -- which bored the
crap out of me.

When I returned, the band was also returning from a long night of
sitting at dinner. My brother complained that his door was left open
even though he had locked it before, and sure enough, my bedroom was
unlocked even though I had locked it when I left to go to the movie --
albeit in a big hurry.

We were going to rehearse a little bit in my sitting room and so I
began setting up a some of our equipment for a bare bones practice
session. As I prepared the equipment, the lead singer and his wife came
in to the room to help me. After a couple of minutes, lost in the
preparation, I realized that they were no longer in the room, but
standing outside in the hallway. I asked them what they were doing. The
lead singer (all 6'4" 220 pounds of him) answered "I can't stay in your
room. It's got a bad vibe in there. I don't like it. There's something
really wrong in your room." Both he and his wife absolutely refused to
come back in to my room. Practice was cancelled (as I had the only extra
little room) and everyone decided to go to bed. Except me, of course. I
was entirely too freaked out.

The next day, when I returned to my room after lunch, my bed was
made and towels were left on my bed. I didn't think anything of that --
although usually the maids didn't touch the band rooms until the end of
the week -- because we're notorious slobs. I thanked the lady at the
front desk (the co-owner of the hotel) for sending someone to clean my
room but mentioned that it wasn't necessary. She just looked at me and
asked me what I was talking about. She literally had no idea. I told her
about my clean room and the towels (although I had asked no one for
them). She said that her daughter cleans the rooms on Sunday mornings
and doesn't return until the following Sunday. I told her about seeing
the woman go into my hallway and she had no explanation for that or my
clean room. She laughed and said the guys in the band were playing a
trick on me. I tried to explain that first off, the guys in the band
knew I was terrified to be in the room in the first place, and the last
prank they'd pull was cleaning my room and bringing towels to scare me
(they would have been much more cruel than that to my delicate psyche)
and secondly, they wouldn't be awake for another few hours.

She just shrugged and didn't offering anything else. My room was
made three times that week (not every day) and no one else's was.

After I realized that whatever it was, wasn't out to harm me -- but
rather make me pretty darn comfortable -- I had some of the best rest
ever in that place. And yes, the lead singer and his wife
never did come into my room again.